


His Blood

by kitsuchi (genusshrike)



Category: Harry Potter - Rowling
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2003-09-27
Updated: 2003-09-27
Packaged: 2017-10-08 22:00:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 818
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/79933
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/genusshrike/pseuds/kitsuchi
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Defined by their friendship; defined by their blood.</p>
            </blockquote>





	His Blood

Perhaps it was odd, for two such as they to be such good friends. If they hadn't been the same year, the same house, they wouldn't have known each other as anything but "Crouch", or "the younger Black boy". But they were in the same house, and they were in the same year, and though they shared a room with seven other boys, they sought ought only each other.

Crouch was always small and skinny, underfed. He looked like he would bruise easily; like a broken doll with hair of straw. Black (the younger) was never anything but striking. Dark-haired and dark-eyed, with skin like moonshine in the deep, dark night.

They were drawn together, perhaps, by their differences. Black, who wanted nothing more to please his family...

_"They even tell me to hate Sirius, and he's my _brother_."_

_"He's different."_

_"He's _blood_."_

_"Blood isn't always what they make it out to be."_

...whilst Crouch loved his mother only, in a jealous little boy way, and for his father, reserved nothing but his deepest hatred. The hatred that turned him astray.

_"But he's-"_

_"Blood? Blood means nothing, haven't I told you?"_

_"He's your father."_

_"And I'm his son, but that doesn't make the slightest difference, does it?"_

_"Barty-"_

_"That's it, isn't it? I'm Bartemius Crouch. I'm him. And I'm supposed to live up to him. But nothing I do, will ever be enough for _him_."_

_"That's not fair, Barty. He just wants you to do well."_

_"He just wants me to be a fucked up bastard like him. And gets mad because I refuse. I won't be like him Regulus, I _won't_."_

_..."You sound like my brother."_

Barty hated. Regulus never quite understood how much he hated.

 

***

 

"Barty?"

"What?"

"Did they come talk to you, too?"

"Who?"

"You know. Them."

"Maybe. Will you-"

"It's what the family expects."

"But do you want to?"

"They want me to."

"Regulus."

"I don't want to be a failure like my brother."

"Hah. No. We'll leave that to me, to fail my family."

"So are you going to?"

"It's better than being my father's son."

"...must you always sound like Sirius?"

"Something like that. Tell you what, Reggy ol' pal, I'll do it if you do it."

"Will you?"

"We'll do it together."

"Together."

"And together, Reggy, we'll outshine both our families."

 

***

 

"Hurry _up_. What are you waiting for?"

"I can't do it."

"What do you mean, you can't do it? He's waiting."

"Look at them, Barty! I can't do it."

"You'll let the family down?"

"Just like my brother, eh?"

"He won't let you."

"I can't do it. Not even to save myself."

"Regulus - he'll kill you."

"It's me or them."

"They'll die anyway!"

"Yeah, but not by my hand."

"Not for me?"

..."Not even for me."

"Regulus..."

"I can't. I just can't, Barty! I don't care if he kills me, I'm not murdering _children_. It's wrong, Barty, the blood is wrong. Sirius... well, Sirius was right."

"And what am I?"

..."You."

"Reggy. Reggy... what if I do it? They'll never know."

"They will, Barty. They'll always know. He can smell a liar."

"Regulus..."

"You'll do it if I do it, eh?"

"Well, I can't back out now."

"And I can?"

"You don't have to, Reggy. It won't be hard. They're... just kids."

"Exactly."

"I can't -"

"You _can_, Barty."

 

***

 

Bartemius Crouch Jr, death darkened and stained with it. He can't scrub it off. He doesn't want to.

Regulus stands with his back tall and his words spiteful. Their lord is too terrible.

_Together,_ they'd said, _we'll do this together._

But Barty isn't ready to die. He has too much to prove.

For Regulus, this just tells him everything he's always known, underneath. Not in his blood. Somewhere much darker than that.

Barty won't die for him, he realises, and the knowledge hurts. More than the curses, it hurts. That Barty loves the Dark Lord over him. That Barty hates his father, more than he loves Regulus. That he won't stop the screaming, even when he cannot bear to look. That at least, is solace.

The Dark Lord lets Bellatrix kill Regulus. It is her right, is it not? He is a failure. He has failed his blood, even if he has not failed himself.

Barty still won't watch, and he will pay for that later. When Regulus is dead, and Barty holding his body, tighter than he ever dared whilst the blood still ran in it. When Barty cries, and the price demanded for that sentiment is one he deserves to pay.

_Together,_ they'd said. Well, he has made his choice, and he is alone now. All he had left is the darkness, and some small knowledge of familiar bonds: what makes them, and what breaks them.

And the blood was too quick in the both of them.

And Regulus was not willing to live, for Barty.

And Regulus is still.


End file.
